THE villages of Dunnington and Elvington are to be restored to Fulford School's catchment area.

The decision to return them to the York school's area from 2003 followed a vote down party lines at City of York Council.

In a long and heated debate, Labour councillors warned that the move would mean children in Fulford's wider catchment area may not get a place from 2003, and other schools could face falling rolls in the future.

They accused the Liberal Democrat and Conservative groups of vying for votes in the villages.

But the other parties, who backed the move, said they were restoring certainty to parents in the villages; that Fulford School already needed building work anyway; and that the bulge in secondary-aged children would pass through the system by 2004.

The two villages were taken out of Fulford's catchment into Archbishop Holgate's in a reorganisation of the whole city's admissions system agreed in 1999, which took effect this month.

Officers have forecast that numbers at Fulford will now grow from 1,170 to 1,422 by 2005, including children from the nearby new Germany Beck development.

Parents said afterwards they were relieved by the decision but said it had never been their intention to affect the places of other children in the Fulford catchment.

Coun Janet Looker, Labour's executive member for education, said the catchment areas drawn up in 1999 were designed to give every school in York a sustainable future and to offer children a place at their local school.

She said: "Although this will create some certainty for Dunnington and Elvington parents it will create uncertainty for a lot of other parents in a lot of other parts of the city."

Council leader Coun Rod Hills said the council's capital budget was already tight and developer contributions from new housing in the Fulford area would not cover building work at the school.

And Coun Mick Brighton, a governor at Fulford School, said it could not take more and more pupils.

Coun Charles Hall, the Liberals' education spokesman, said it was important to listen to the way people wished the council to act, and the decision would give the villages some certainty and restore a 30-year link.

Liberal leader Coun Steve Galloway said there were no plans for changes to any other catchment areas, and changes to eligibility criteria at Fulford would not automatically be the case. He said money would have to be found to fund building work at Fulford.

Updated: 09:35 Wednesday, September 19, 2001